S W A M P L A N D

Foreign Movie Posters

2010-10-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Human Mollusk

2010-08-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

I found about this artist through the 'Eaten By Ducks' blog. He does great illustrations and from what I can tell he has a love for H.P. Lovecraft like I do. Enjoy.

PS: The John Waters illustration I put up there was to see if anyone could name the movie each character was from.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Poster Art

2010-06-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

My dad recently bought a book called the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Companion" and has called me everyday since giving me little bits of information about the making of the movie. I saw this movie when I was about 10 as a double feature with Evil Dead. Both movies freaked me out and warped my mind. Although, TCM still holds its own in the world of horror over 30 years deep. My dad just bought me (as a surprise) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Ultimate Edition on DVD the special features are great and peaked my interest in this gem of a horror film. Here is some artwork.

PumpkinHead art

2010-05-14T13:52:00.001-07:00

Vincent Locke

2010-05-10T09:44:00.001-07:00

I remember seeing the below image as a T-shirt when I was maybe 11 or 12 and it completely intrigued and freaked me out. Then later I heard a death metal mix tape while I ate lunch (my friend's older sister) and was even more disgusted. It was basically Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Sepultura and some other bands.. I was sitting in the kitchen and you could hear it blasting from the living room. Now I am obsessed with Vincent Locke's technique of undead artwork. You may remember him from basically every Cannibal Corpse cover. I also attached some other artwork. Enjoy?

MONSTERS

2010-05-03T09:30:00.001-07:00

Werewolf Movie Poster Art

2010-03-09T20:17:00.000-08:00

GOAT KULT 2009

2010-02-25T11:36:00.001-08:00

Created this using Photoshop and Illustrator. This was a project I did for school in June of 2009. About 15+ hours were spent putting this together. Inspired by Venom and Hellraiser. The original is 12 x 24. Prints available for $15. email: swamplandnoise@yahoo.com

Crabzilla!

2010-02-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

HP Lovecraft's worst nightmare. I'd love to check this thing out in person reminds me I still have to visit the Smithsonian and Mutter Museum.
Thanks to Jay (invisibilitycomplex.blogspot.com) for forwarding this to me.

The crabs are commonly found in the Pacific in 1,000 ft (300m) deep waters but have been known to live deeper. Curator Graham Burrows said: "It is rumoured these crabs can grow as big as four metres, big enough to straddle a car. "He will absolutely dwarf the other crabs in there, but he's not aggressive and they should have nothing to worry about."

The Japanese spider crab has long captured the imagination of sea life-lovers, and you can see why--underwater, the sinister-looking thing looks like the source for any number of horror or sci fi move creatures. With 10 legs, believed to live up to 100 years, and the biggest of them believed to be lurking at depths over 2,000 feet, few creatures retain as much mystique as the spider crab.

The "Space Jockey" and related

2010-02-12T14:00:00.001-08:00

In Sci-Fi and horror I've always questioned what this creature was. My dad called me about this recently so I did some research.

The Space Jockey is discovered in Alien when the commercial starship Nostromo sets down on the unsurveyed moon LV-426 to investigate an unknown signal. The crew finds a crashed derelict spacecraft with its fossilized pilot—the Space Jockey—inside.

Scott suggests in his Alien DVD commentary that the Jockey's ship was a "bomber": alien eggs could be dropped on an enemy planet, and the aliens would proceed to kill the population as they spawned. According to Cameron, the Space Jockey's craft picked up alien eggs and the pilot became infected by the dangerous cargo; the ship landed on LV-426 and the Space Jockey transmitted the signal as a warning. In Foster's Alien novelization, Ash describes the Space Jockey's race as a noble people and hopes that mankind will encounter them under more pleasant circumstances. It also states that they were larger, stronger and possibly more intelligent than humans. Foster's novelization states that the Jockey was trying to warn humans away from the aliens.

Chimera art

2010-02-10T10:33:00.001-08:00

In Greek mythology, the Chimera (Greek Χίμαιρα (Chímaira); Latin Chimaera) was a monstrous fire-breathing creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that terminated in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her spine. The Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term chimera has also come to mean hard to believe or difficult to understand.

"Screamo"

2010-02-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

In the late 90's a type of hardcore emerged that was both hard and noisy but had melody (sometimes) and high pitched vocals. This scene emerged out when power violence was at its peak. At the same time Victory Record knuckle dragging hardcore dominated. Quite a few bands tired of this finger pointing nonsense went on to create a new sound. No one had named this new scene except for a band called In/Humanity, deeming themselves "emo-violence" (as a joke). The term caught on and bands began claiming themselves as "emo-violence" bands. As a jokingly deregatory term fans began to call them "screamo". This type of hardcore stems from punk, power-violence, grunge, metal and early hardcore and "emo" bands.

Fugazi first deemed an "emo" band is so far from Dashboard Confessional.

And pg. 99 couldn't be farther away from My Chemical Romance.

My reason for bringing this up is because I recently found some recordings of bands I was in who played this type of music. I was in three, Soundtrack to Murder By, Surprise your Dead and Count the Bodies. Now thinking of it all the names have a common thread. I came up with all the names but at that time it was the emergence of all this Metal Blade-esque chugga chugga hardcore/metal and I just wanted to put all those bands on a boat far out in the ocean and set it on fire. Anyway enjoy the below videos. And if anyone wants one of the releases contact me: swamplandnoise@yahoo.com

In/Humanity

Combatwoundedveteran

Orchid

Pg. 99

WHAT?!

2010-02-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.thinkgene.com/scientists-successfully-create-human-bear-pig-chimera/

On The Evening of the 'Wolf Moon'

2010-01-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

Cerberus, in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping. Cerberus featured in many works of ancient Greek and Roman literature and in works of both ancient and modern art and architecture, although, the depiction and background surrounding Cerberus often differed across various works by different authors of the era. The most notable difference is the number of its heads: Most sources describe or depict three heads; others show it with two or even just one; a smaller number of sources show a variable amount, sometimes as many as 50.

Kraken artwork

2010-01-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

In 1830, possibly aware of Denys de Montfort's work, Alfred Tennyson published his popular poem "The Kraken" (essentially an irregular sonnet), which disseminated Kraken in English forever fixed with its superfluous the. Tennyson's description apparently influenced Jules Verne's imagined lair of the famous giant squid in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea from 1870. In the novel, seven giant squid attack the submarine simultaneously; however, all film adaptations to date (excepting one depicting a giant manta ray-type creature) have opted for one, unrealistically massive squid instead. Verne also makes numerous references to Kraken and Erik Pontopiddan in the novel.

According to Philip A. Shreffer in The Lovecraft Companion, it is safe to suppose that Tennyson's portrayal of Kraken also influenced the 20th century horror writer H. P. Lovecraft in his description of the octopus-headed monster-god Cthulhu, which is currently trapped at the bottom of the ocean, until "strange ?ons" shall bring about its return to the surface; and which in his short story The Call of Cthulhu is encountered by a Norwegian sailor.[1]

The Kraken by Tennyson
Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

In Richard Adams' novel The Girl in a Swing, the main female character, Kathe, is stalked by the Kraken to punish her for the crime of murder by drowning.

In the American tall tale, Captain Alfred Bulltop Stormalong was a literally larger than life seaman who grew to be one of the tallest seaman ever, and eventually built a gigantic ship to accommodate his own proportions. On a voyage to China at age 13, Stormalong's ship encountered a Kraken, which took hold of the ship's keel. Stormalong dove into the water and tied the creature's arms into knots. As Stormalong grew older, he eventually encountered the kraken again, this time successfully drawing the beast into a whirlpool from which it never escaped.

A Tolkien Bestiary by David Day proposes that the Watcher in the Water in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring was based on Kraken, though it seems unlikely that Tolkien would have placed the Kraken in fresh water. This view has been further contested by those who note that the tentacles of Tolkien's monster are nowhere described as octopus-like, though "The Watcher" does suggest a single creature. In the 2001 film version by Peter Jackson, the Watcher is clearly more similar to our modern view of Kraken.

The book The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham details an almost apocalyptic scenario in which the massive sea creature is the main cause. Although it is made clear in the book that the 'Kraken' of the story is actually a process of invasion by ocean-dwelling aliens, it is still clear that the Kraken is the basis for these aliens and Wyndham's fictional narrator quotes Tennyson's poem in the preface. Presumably for this reason Wyndham has been cited as having based the story on the poem.

In the series of books A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, a golden Kraken on a black field is the coat of arms for the Greyjoy House.

In the children's book Monster Mission by the award-winning author Eva Ibbotson, the Kraken is a force for good who has the ability to clean and heal the oceans.

Kraken is mentioned in several of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia books, including The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

In Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick the crew of the Pequod encounter a "vast pulpy mass, furlongs in length". Melville attributes this to Bishop Pontopiddan's "the great Kraken" and was assumed to be a giant squid.

The nonfiction Encyclopedia Horrifica explores the connection between the Kraken and the giant squid. The author cites the Kraken as his inspiration for writing the book. On the official website, the Kraken was the first-ever "Monster of the Month" in May 2007.

Kraken appear in Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox as enormous, peaceful creatures that stay in the same spot for centuries feeding on algae, doubling as islands. They are described as being conical in shape, although there is a tubular shaped one on the coast of Ireland. In this book, kraken shed their shells explosively, igniting a layer of methane under the old one and sending it flying. A comparison is made between the Kraken, and a barnacle (albeit one big enough to be mistaken for an island)

In the fantasy novel Good Omens by N. Gaiman and T. Pratchett there is a brief mention of kraken rising from great depth and attacking a Japanese whaling ship.

In the science fiction novel, The Hive, by Chris Berman, The Kraken is the name given to the fusion powered spacecraft of the Earth's defense fleet, that was built with reverse engineered alien technology.

The Xanth fantasy series, by Piers Anthony, includes a tentacular plant monster called a kraken among its other fantastic monsters.

Kraken feature in the fantasy novel The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers (from Chronicles of an Age of Darkness), and appear on the cover. the real kraken could still be alive but ancient gods and mortals claim that poesiden the god of sea defeated the creature by capturing it when it was asleep and bringing it to the god of strength (hercules) to defeat it others say posedian got rid of the beast by him self.

In Michael Crichton's posthumous 2009 novel, Pirate Latitudes, a large sea creature terrorizes the protagonist's ship that the sailors called the kraken.

Movie Poster/Cover Art #4

2010-01-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

Movie Poster/Cover Art #3

2010-01-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

Movie Poster/Video Cover Art #2

2010-01-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

Old Horror Movie Posters/Cover Art #1

2010-01-21T18:12:00.001-08:00

Since I was a little kid I would go to the local mom and pop video store with my dad and rent movies. I would constantly be amazed and obsessed with cover art for horror movies. 9 times out of 10 the cover art is more amazing than the movie. This is a true art form and probably one of my all time favorites. Poster and dvd cover art is not the same anymore especially for horror movies (this goes for metal and punk covers today). Enjoy.

Nick Cave + related

2010-01-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

For those of you who do not know me personally, I AM HUGE NICK CAVE FAN. For my 25th birthday a friend of mine made a calendar for me dedicated to the MAN. For those of you not familiar I will let you get some enlightenment on his three most famous endeavors. The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds and Grinderman.

Friday the 13th Artwork

2010-01-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

THE THING + related

2010-01-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

John Carpenter's "The Thing" aside from the first "Alien" movie is my favorite Sci-Fi/Horror film. I've been extremely interested in the story of "The Thing" since I found out that the original story was based heavily on H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness". The idea of a monster that can change into any creature it has ever encountered completely intrigued me and scared me in more ways than ever in my youth.

my current playlist

2009-12-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

current endeavors

2009-12-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

My recent semester of school has ended. Currently I am painting landscapes (worlds) and monsters for a series of (currently unpublished) stories with my future father-in-law. We began brain storming a world this Christmas weekend and we have made headway. He was a former english teacher at Loyola Marymount University in the Westchester, CA county and is writing the story. He is also a huge JRR Tolkien fan, he wrote his dissertation on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Our world will be a mix of my gothic horror and influence of Giger and Lovecraft with a classic warrior/knight story.

I chose to paint panels for the series, instead of illustrating it like a graphic novel.

We don't know where it will ever go, although, it is extremely exciting to collaborate with someone on a project completely different than I ever would.

I will begin to post concept monster and landscape drawings/paintings here shortly.

My inspiration:

Dirty Blues Art

2009-12-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

80's Toys Part 2

2009-11-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

80's Toys Part 1

2009-11-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

Artists Inspired by HP Lovecraft

2009-11-16T10:46:00.000-08:00

CHOKE OUT THE SUN BECAUSE THE WORLD IS OURS

2009-11-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

The photo above was taken by me on a 2006 tour of the midwest.

The other two were taken by my best friend Kevin an extremely talented photographer, who came on a whim to photograph a group of mongrols in the fall of 2006. He has been my best friend for over 10 years now. I appreciate every second I speak or spend with him, because without meeting him I may not of had the experiences I've had in my life.
We've shared numerous but we've done them on our own with equal enthusiasm.

"Cattle die
kinsmen die
all men are mortal.
Words of praise
will never perish
nor a noble name"

WARSAW.

Dungeons and Dragons Art #3

2009-11-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

Dungeons and Dragons Art #2

2009-11-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

Dungeons and Dragons Art #1

2009-11-06T12:13:00.001-08:00

PUSHEAD for KYLESA

2009-10-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

HR Giger Rip-off Art - Videogame edition

2009-10-10T12:20:00.001-07:00

2009-08-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

REAL SEA MONSTERS (I hate the ocean)

2009-08-22T18:15:00.001-07:00

Japanese Monsters - 1737

2009-08-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

An Inugami (lit. “dog god”) is a familiar spirit that looks like a dog and acts as a protective guardian. Inugami are extremely powerful and loyal, and they are known to carry out acts of revenge on behalf of their “owners.” They can also exist independently, and under some circumstances they may turn against their owners. Inugami also have the ability to possess humans.

Kami-kiri (lit. “hair-cutter”) are ghostly spirits known for sneaking up on people and cutting all their hair off, particularly when they are unknowingly engaged to marry a yokai, spirit or other supernatural creature posing as a human. These hair-cutting attacks are intended to delay or prevent weddings between humans and otherworldly beings, which are typically doomed to failure.

Ouni is a mountain hag with a mouth stretching from ear to ear and a thick coat of long, black hair covering her entire body. According to an old Niigata prefecture legend, Ouni appeared one day to a group of women as they were spinning hemp into yarn. After accepting the hairy hag’s offer to help, the women watched in surprise as she repeatedly placed raw hemp fiber into her mouth and pulled out finished yarn. After quickly producing a large quantity in this way, Ouni stepped outside and suddenly disappeared. Legend has it that she left footprints in the nearby rocks, which can still be seen to this day.

In ancient Aomori prefecture legends, Uwan is a disembodied voice that inhabits old, abandoned temples and homes. When a person enters a haunted building, the formless spirit belts out an ear-piercing “Uwan!” (hence the name). The voice is only audible to people inside the building — those standing outside hear nothing. Uwan consists only of sound and poses no physical danger.

Ancient Japanese legends are rife with examples of formless yokai like Uwan, which consist of nothing but sound, light or other natural phenomena. In the Edo period, however, these yokai assumed physical bodies as artists incorporated them into their work.

Nure-onna (lit. “wet woman”) is a fast-swimming amphibious creature with the head of a human female and the body of a gigantic snake. Her appearance varies slightly from story to story, but she is usually described as having beady, snake-like eyes and long, sharp claws and fangs. Nure-onna is typically seen at the water’s edge, washing her long, flowing hair. In some stories, she carries a small child, which she uses to attract potential victims. When a well-intentioned person offers to hold the baby for Nure-onna, the child attaches itself to the victim’s hands and grows heavy, making it nearly impossible to flee. In some stories, Nure-onna uses her long, powerful tongue to suck all the blood from her victim’s body.

Ushi-oni (lit. “cow devil”) is a malevolent sea monster with the head of a bull and the body of a giant spider or crab. It is most often encountered in the coastal waters of western Japan, particularly in Shimane prefecture, where it is feared for its vicious attacks on fishermen.

2009-08-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dick Smith make-up.

His credits include Ghost Story, The Exorcist, The Hunger among others.

humans are innately religious as a species, so you don't need a specific excuse for examining the perversely unholy

2009-08-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

Clive Barker art

THE ELEPHANT MAN (in progress)

2009-07-17T11:10:00.001-07:00

The painting is about 95% done. These photos were taken with my digital camera. Once the piece is completely done I'll have do a nice scan that is an appropriate size.

So please excuse the large files for now.

Gouache, acrylic, oil on drawing paper.

THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY

2009-07-16T10:23:00.001-07:00

I was not familiar with this religious theme until I visited the Getty Museum's 14-15th century religious wing of paintings. I found it extremely creepy and interesting.

Here are just a few examples. (click image for larger versions)

Don Brautigam

2009-07-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

GHASTLY GRAHAM INGELS

2009-07-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

Graham Ingels (June 7, 1915- April 4, 1991)
The absolute king of grotesque, melting, oozing creatures. One of a kind.

2009-06-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

my favorite book cover. when i was a kid i would just stare at this in the local library. i've read this book about 4 times since i was 16.

by the end of the summer i am going to finish a collage/paint piece for stephen king's pet sematary. probably one of my favorite books and a movie that spooked and intrigued me as a kid.

2009-06-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

these are two paintings I did early this year for the Moth Drakula "s/t" CD that will be out on Misanthropic Agenda.

gouache, oil, sandpaper, stitched cloth on matte board.
(01.2009)

ALBUM COVERS

2009-06-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

More to come.

She's my... cousin. But doesn't she look almost exactly like Laura Palmer?

2009-06-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

I've begun a series of paintings inspired by David Lynch films. I've almost finished a painting of the Elephant Man. Next will possibly be Shai Hulud from Dune, "The Dumpster Man" from Mulholland Drive (pictured above), Spike from Eraserhead and something inspired by Blue Velvet. I will post the paintings one at a time once finished.

ILLUSTRATIONS THAT WARPED MY MIND AS A CHILD

2009-06-25T13:03:00.001-07:00

The first three drawings are from a series of books called Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Stephen Gammell's style is very haunting and certainly made the horror stories in the book (which were fairly weak) even more frightening. See more of his work here. The last is from the novella Cycle of the Werewolf.